Over the weekend, Bill Childs of Spare the Rock Spoil the Child wrote, quite simply, that he was plotting his family’s Summer road trip. That’s all…no details, no dreamy locale mentioned. I read this sentence and my mind quickly began to roam…where can we go?! Is Mouse, at 2, ready for a long road trip? Can we fly somewhere far away (say, Santa Fe), rent a car and meander home?

It took much of Sunday, but we think we’ve figured it out. Using Pete Seeger’s Clearwater Music Festival along the Hudson River as a launching pad, we will head north to Lake Placid for a night, then off to Montreal for nearly a week before heading west in Canada to Kingston/Belleville for a quick tour of the 1000 Islands Region in the St. Lawrence River. From there we bypass Toronto (where the Blue Jays play the Phillies but the big ugly dome there + insane ticket prices do nothing to inspire me enough incorporate it) on the way to Niagara Falls. We have a beautiful room with a huge window overlooking both the American and Canadian Falls. We finish up in Pittsburgh, where we will see a Pirates game at lovely PNC Park and visit the underrated Pittsburgh Zoo.

12 nights overall, 1500 miles, yet no single day of driving will be longer than 4.5 hours. Not too shabby!

All we need is the price of gas to stay stable (or drop, that’d be fine as well!) and the Canadian dollar to stay where it is in relation to the greenback.

I wish were leaving right now.

Thanks Bill for inspiring the Mrs. and I to dream up this wild summer ride. A trip that will finally get me to Montreal, a city that has enchanted me from a far for so, so long! The girls are watching Muzzy right now…time to re-learn a little French!

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sounds like a great trip. like the sound of the clearwater music festival. montreal for nearly a week will give you lots of time to explore– the public pools in the parks here are free on weekends, and when it’s hot the big library at the Berri metro has an amazing kids’ section. (yes, i am a library tourist. big geek.) cheers!